25 years ago, Reebok rocked the basketball world with the introduction of The Pump (shouts to Dee Brown!) in its sneakers. Today, the brand announced its latest innovation using Pump technology.

Meet the Reebok ZPump Fusion, a cutting-edge sneaker for athletic training. Reebok has taken the revolutionary technology of Pump and implemented it into a custom fit running shoe. With an air-filled cage that inflates and deflates to each runner’s liking, the lightweight ZPump Fusion Sleeve is built for improved performance and max comfort.

We got a chance to preview the ZPump this morning in New York City, at an event that included UFC fighters like Jon “Bones” Jones and Conor McGregor, plus SI Swimsuit model Hannah Davis and Entourage actor Adrian Grenier. You can cop your pair starting March 10 for $110 via Reebok.com and select retailers.

With a robust retro sneaker market in play, Reebok Classics will continue to dip into the company’s rich archive for fresh re-releases in 2014.

“The idea on the retro side is putting as much product as we can in the marketplace but not too much so we can balance the supply and demand,” says Todd Krinsky, VP of Reebok Classics, Entertainment & Basketball. “And bring some of our retro story on court through new players.”

At the recent Project Trade Show in Las Vegas, Krinsky gave SLAM a look at several upcoming lines of footwear and a brief on some of the stories the brand will share through footwear in ’14. With dope posters of Sonics legend Shawn Kemp and former Chicago White Sox great Frank Thomas looming, Krinsky went to work and began with basketball, of course.

Reebok will open the year with the re-release of the original Kamikaze, the shoe donned by Kemp in 1994. “The OG Sonics colorway which will be one of our big stories for the first part of the year,” Krinsky says. The sneaker will release in the original four colorways and a fresh ’95 Phoenix All-Star Game desert edition.

The Shaqnosis will see fresh colorways, including a Celtics clover joint and there will be an LSU-themed Shaq Attaq coming. The brand will also develop stories around some of their lesser known endorsers of the ’90s, specifically the Big Dog, Glenn Robinson. Reebok will re-release his old sneak, the Rail, in several colorways and has plans to have him involved.

In the first room of sneakers that Krinsky toured us through, there was a nice framed photo of Muggsy Bogues above the sneaker racks and Reebok also plans to release the shoe Bogues wore—the Swingman. “We had 35-40 players wearing this shoe,” Krinsky explains. “We had a lot of team colors in that shoe.”

In quarter two, Reebok will move into Blacktop. “In the mid-’90s when everybody was doing indoor basketball stories, we had this idea around Sinbad and playing outdoor basketball,” Krinsky says. “The product was kind of chunky and big and ’90s with the banding on the bottom with the Hexalite. The upper takes on this ’90s feel that is trending right now. This will be a big push for us in the second part of the year—we will have players wearing it on court. It will be our basketball initiative around the world to promote Blacktop. We will have a pump version as well.”

In addition, Reebok took some of their OG product and had their design team cobble new morphed versions that are lighter and more funtionable with new tech. One of those shoes is the Q96, based on the Question. Reebok plans to sign some young guards this season to wear the shoe on court. Another shoe created via the same concept is the Pump Revenge, based on the Shaq Attaqs and modernized with a new look and the addition of pump technology.

The brand has continued its strong collaborations, highlighted by a partnership with Ian Paley and his UK-based menswear brand, Garbstore. “He had never done a collaboration with a footwear brand before,” Krinsky explains. “He is a super creative guy and one of the things he looked at when he started to look at Reebok, was he noticed we build a lot of the inside of the shoe.”

Paley created the Reebok “Outside In” collection by essentially taking the guts of the inside of the shoe and artfully re-creating it on the upper. His initial creation went over extremely well and the brand had him create similar concepts on other models. “We are real excited about how it came out,” Krinsky says. The Reebok x Garbstore collection will be limited to handpicked boutiques around the World.

On the women’s side, designer Melody Ehsani has crafted a lovely edition of Reebok Pump’s that is sure to send Hypebeasts into frenzy. Featuring a multi-colored upper and her signature studs and “love” script, Krinsky believes guys out there in smaller sizes will cop. “For the first time I think out best Pump offering is on the women’s side, so that’s pretty dope,” he says.

Krinsky finished the tour by highlighting a collaboration with graffiti artist Stash, who went to serious work on several Reebok Pump models.

Reebok’s partnership with hip-hop is growing. During the tradeshow, Reebok Classics hosted an ill concert at the Rain Nightclub inside the Palms hotel, featuring Travi$ Scott, French Montana, Tyga, Rick Ross and Chris Brown. It was an incredible show, with many of the artists showing much love to Reebok on the mic, especially Ross. At one point during the show, Reebok Creative Director Swizz Beatz exclaimed, “Ross is Reebok family for life, fuck what ya heard!”

Scott, a young artist and producer, plans to do some work on the Reebok Classics side. “Hopefully the opportunity comes across that will allow me to do my own shoe,” he says.

Before his performance, Scott told me that Kanye West inspired him to create his first beat. “It was on a program called Reason,” he says. “Hell yeah, it was tight. But right now, that beat sucks.”

With his career on a nice rise, Scott says his dream music collaboration would be with M.I.A. “It’s always in my imagination,” he says.

With Swizz and Krinsky at the helm on the creative side, the resurgence of Reebok Classics and Reebok Basketball has been nice to see. The brand hopes to carry the momentum into 2014 through its retro releases and collaborations.

“We also have the 20th anniversary of the Fury coming in ’14,” Krinsky says with a smile. “We’re going to do something special.”

You don’t have to be Jordan or LeBron to make a show your own. See, Celtics guard Dee Brown gave basketball—and sneakers—a moment so iconic that he will forever be synonymous with the footwear he chose to rock that day. The scene: 1991 Slam Dunk Contest. The dunk: No-Look. The shoe: Reebok Pump Omni Lite. He pumped them up, dunked the dunk and took home the hardware, engraving the image of his Pumps soaring through the lane into memories on onto posters everywhere. Says Brown of that moment, via Reebok: “To this day I’m identified with one shoe and one shoe only – the Reebok Pump.”

Reebok is bringing back Brown’s iconic sneaker, as the Pump Omni OG will hit key retailers and Reebok.com for $115 on Friday, June 14.

More than 20 years after Dominique “The Human Highlight Reel” Wilkins first wore them in a game, Reebok Classics is bringing back three iconic colorways of the “Pump Twilight Zone.”

Each of the colorways is meant to correlate to a specific time and milestone in Wilkins’ career. The black/white/red design harkens back to Niq’s days as an amateur; the white/red/grey model, which wore well with Niq’s Atlanta Hawks jersey, is his original in-game colorway; and the grey/red/silver look is Niq’s Slam Dunk Contest championship colorway.

Set to release in limited quantities on Christmas eve (December 24), these three colorways will retail for $120 and will be available at Foot Locker, Finish Line, Footaction and other major retailers. They will also be available at Reebok.com.

Did you know that Dominique Wilkins was born in Paris, France? His father was a member of the US Air Force and stationed there. And that he was drafted by the Utah Jazz as the No. 3 pick in the 1982 Draft but refused to play in Salt Lake City, resulting in a trade to the Atlanta Hawks?

Looking back on the illustrious career of the Human Highlight film is a beautiful thing. The NBA Hall of Famer made a great impact on the hardwood and he is being celebrated this week by his Reebok family with the re-release of the Twilight Zone Pump, in stores today and available online. Nique was in Las Vegas at the Project trade show on behalf of the brand on Monday, sharing a stage with AI, Reebok Creative Director Swizz Beatz and rappers Tyga and Rick Ross, to reflect on the company’s heritage and future collaborations.

At the event, Dominique recalled his friendly rivalry with Michael Jordan, both on and off the court. In a 1989 Reebok ad, Nique—sporting a fresh high top fade—advises MJ to “pump up and air out” with a Reebok pump sneak. While on the stage, Nique said MJ wasn’t too pleased about the spot, but it was all in jest.

One of the most popular models in Reebok’s unique archive, the Twilight Zone Pump features a white neon colorway mixed with yellow, black and red. It was one of the most highly advanced basketball sneakers of its time, and the brand was very proud of its combination of pump and ERS technology. Dominique wore the shoe in 1990 and secured his second victory in the NBA Dunk Contest in it. The re-release features the original colorway and will retail for $119—available at Foot Locker, Jimmy Jazz, Villa Sheiks and City gear.

In the videos below, Nique and Reebok Marketing and Entertainment Director Todd Krinsky discuss the history of the shoe and some of the commercials from that particular era. And peep that old pump commercial Wilkins starred in for Reebok in 1989. Classic.

Ever since KICKS 3 (summer 2000), each issue of the annual sneaker mag—KICKS 10 not included—has contained two or three new inductions into the KICKS Hall of Fame, where footwear legends past and present are honored. This may not be fresh material for those of you who’ve been copping the mag since before the new millennium hit, but for the younger heads, we’re posting the entire HOF online over the course of the next few weeks. (It’ll be archived under the KICKS tab above.) Enjoy, and don’t forget: KICKS 14 is on sale now! —Ed.

As always, earning a spot in the KICKS Hall of Fame is about the sole, not how often you put the ball in the hole. To that end, Dee Brown’s middling NBA career—which basketballreference.com ranks as statistically “similar” to forgettable cats like Kevin Edwards and Reggie Williams—will nonetheless be remembered for an event that had no impact on his career averages or his team’s record.

Heading into the 1991 NBA All-Star Weekend in Charlotte, the skinny, 6-1 Brown was a rookie with the Boston Celtics, having been selected with the 19th pick in the first round out of lightly regarded Jacksonville University in his hometown of Jacksonville, FL. Brown would go on to earn a spot on the all-rookie team for his role as a sparkplug for the Larry Bird-led Celts, but in general, his relatively pedestrian pedigree meant that people were not checking for Brown as the dunk contest got underway, particularly with more known high flyers such as Shawn Kemp and Kenny Smith in the field.

Once things got started, however, Brown drew attention with a showy display of “pumping up” his Reebok Pumps before his dunks. Dee’s athletic attacks on the rim got him to the finals, where he faced the aforementioned Kemp, a beastly dunker who can lay claim to the title of “best dunk contestant to never win one,” and eventually became a Reebok endorsee himself. Before his final dunk, Brown again pumped up, then lifted off for the famous “hide your eyes/peek-a-boo” jam pictured at right. After he completed the crowd- and judge-pleasing dunk and wrapped up the contest in the process, Brown bent over and “deflated” his shoes. Dee was saying quite clearly that it had to have been the shoes. People believed. As Rip Hamilton told NBA.com when asked about his favorite kicks, “The Pump wasn’t a plain shoe. It gave you a little extra. It gave Dee Brown a little extra in that Dunk Contest.”

Brown was recently quoted as telling Boston sports media analyst John Molori that he had “no plans” to pump until “Larry Bird and Kevin McHale encouraged me leading into the competition. They were telling me what dunks to try (even though) neither of them had dunked in 10 years. After the competition, I was at the hotel with Bird and a group of fans ran past him to get to me. Bird told them, ‘Shoot like me, but dunk like Dee.’”

This story, if true, shatters the long-held view that Brown had been “coached” into that attention-grabbing move by Reebok, which certainly put the exposure to good use. The Reebok Pump had been on the market since ’89, but originally it was a super-high-end shoe (the Pump ERS) aimed only at serious hoopsters. In ’90, Reebok put out some more affordable, accessible styles of the Pump, and Brown was tagged as a solid endorser, though Reebok could never have imagined just how memorable he’d make their shoes.

Brown, who despite his size was not a true PG, never really pumped up his career, averaging just 11.1 ppg and 3.7 apg over 12 seasons with the Celtics, Raptors and Magic, and playing a full 82 only in that action-packed rookie year. Injuries also kept him from defending his Dunk Contest crown in ’92. After he retired as a player in ’02, Brown worked as a coach of the WNBA’s Orlando Miracle and San Antonio Silver Stars, and later in the Magic’s front office, then resurfaced this past spring as the winner of ESPN’s Dream Job.

This year, Reebok launched a new ad campaign to promote the Pump 2.0, a technologically advanced shoe designed to conform to its wearers’ feet, and Allen Iverson’s new line has Pump influences. The science behind the Pump is key, but never sleep on a product’s marketability as the true reason for success. And Dee certainly made the Pumps marketable—to the point that AI, the king of originality, can now be linked to Dee. And, for our purposes, that influence over a brand and a style is what matters. Career-wise, the way things turned out for the original Dee Brown (no disrespect to the Illini version) is beside the point. What we’ll always remember is him pumping his shoes before his contest-winning dunk, and then the TV guys exclaiming, “Dee Brown in the house!” after he’d completed it.

There are a number of things enjoying a 20th anniversary this year. Along with Saved by the Bell and the fall of the Berlin wall sits a monumental sneaker development, in the Reebok Pump.

Reebok has just launched a site that’s all about the Pump. They’re also going all out to celebrate the shoe, with a documentary on the Pump by director Colin O’Toole that’s set to release on Nov. 20.

Reebok is giving away 20 pairs of limited edition anniversary editions of the Pump on their Twitter account (@Reebok). Visit their site and follow them on Twitter to stay up to date on the giveaways and their 20th anniversary. And be on the lookout for some fresh collaborations. (Sorry, no hints here, but you can get the latest at here.) And for old time’s sake, enjoy these two old Pump ads from back in the day:

First with Dominique Wilkins and friends:

And one from our favorite NBA analyst who I miss every time I hear Reggie Miller’s voice, Bill Walton:

And the specifics from Reebok:

“As you probably know, twenty years after the first pair was launched, Reebok is collaborating with 20 of the world’s most iconic sneaker stores to create 20 limited edition versions of The Pump. Featuring retailers from across Europe, Asia, the US and Australia these collaborations celebrate the iconic nature of The PUMP while giving each retailer their chance to customize the design classic in a fresh and exciting way. The shoes will be available on November 20th. Alongside their limited-edition Pump designs, each retail partner will also offer bring backs of two of the original Pump colorways.

Reebok has just launched www.Pump20.com, which is the on-line home to all-things PUMP. In addition, Reebok is marking this momentous anniversary with the release of a film documenting the history of The PUMP by cutting edge director Colin O’Toole. The film will be released on November 20th.

So how can you keep up to date with all things PUMP leading up to Nov. 20? Follow @Reebok on Twitter.

Not only will followers be the first to know about everything related to the PUMP 20th Anniversary but followers of @Reebok will also have the opportunity to WIN a pair of the VERY limited edition bring backs of the original PUMP shoes.

There are less than 700 of these shoes being produced! Reebok will be giving away 20 (of course!) pairs. One pair each day will be given away beginning November 1st.

In addition, followers of @Reebok will also get an EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK AT THE ENTIRE 20 SHOE COLLECTION!

Here is what else followers of @Reebok can expect:
• exclusive PUMP videos
• A look back at some of the more iconic PUMP models throughout the years
• PUMP trivia with t-shirt giveaways
• Be the first to know about when new content such as the trailers for the PUMP Documentary are released on Pump20.com
• A look back at some of Reebok’s PUMP ads, both TV and print from the 90’s
• Photos from PUMP release parties around the world
• Anything and everything related to The PUMP“